Synairgen is a

University spin-off University spin-offs (also known as university spin-outs) are companies that transform technological inventions developed from university research that are likely to remain unexploited otherwise. They are a subcategory of research spin-offs. Promi ...

and

public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company ...

(plc) working in

drug discovery In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered. Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by ...

and

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

. It was founded in 2003 by

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

professors

Stephen Holgate Stephen Holgate (15 December 1971 – 16 November 2021) was an English professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s and 2000s. He played at representative level for England and Cumbria, and at club level for Hensingham ARLFC (i ...

, Donna E. Davies and . The company is developing an inhaled formulation of

interferon Interferons (IFNs, ) are a group of signaling proteins made and released by host cells in response to the presence of several viruses. In a typical scenario, a virus-infected cell will release interferons causing nearby cells to heighten the ...

-beta for severe viral

respiratory disease Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathology, pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in Breathing, air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the t ...

s including

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Richard Marsden was appointed chief executive officer in September 2009.

Business Activities

Synairgen has developed and is testing an inhaled formulation of interferon beta, a naturally occurring protein which orchestrates the body's antiviral responses. Viruses, including coronaviruses, have evolved mechanisms which suppress natural IFN-β production, thereby helping the virus evade the immune system. Richard Marsden, the company's chief executive, said one of the main ways viruses evaded the immune system was “to suppress the production of interferon beta”, which plays a significant role in activating the wider immune response and preventing a virus from replicating. “All we’re doing is putting . . . this protein, that everyone makes, back into the battleground, and the battleground that matters is in the lungs,” Marsden said.

COVID-19 Drug Trials

In March 2020, Synairgen initiated a

placebo A placebo ( ) is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value. Common placebos include inert tablets (like sugar pills), inert injections (like Saline (medicine), saline), sham surgery, and other procedures. In general ...

-controlled Phase 2 trial of SNG001, an inhaled form of interferon beta, in COVID-19 patients in the UK. In July 2020, Synairgen announced SNG001 lowered the risk of severe COVID-19 in infected patients in a small clinical trial. The details of the study were published in Lancet in November 2020. The Phase 3 SPRINTER trial (SG018), a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study evaluating SNG001 for the treatment of hospitalised COVID-19 patients, was initiated in January 2021. It completed enrolment of 610 patients in November 2021 across 17 countries. SNG001 is also being investigated independently as part of the US National Institute of Health's ACTIV-2 (Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines) programme to accelerate the development of the most promising COVID-19 treatments. The ACTIV-2 study, sponsored by the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's ...

(NIAID), part of the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

, and led by the NIAID-funded AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), is testing agents in outpatient adults with documented positive SARS-CoV-2 infection and symptoms of COVID-19. Synairgen's SNG001 was advanced into Phase 3 in October 2021. ----

References

{{reflist Companies established in 2003 Companies based in Southampton